UMUR
"Disorientation..." is a demo release by Swedish death metal act Epitaph. The demo was independently released in July 1991. The material from this demo was released on a split with the material form Excruciate´s January 1991 "Hymns of Mortality" demo in November 1991 through Infest Records. Epitaph formed under the Dark Abbey monicker in 1989 and released a blistering and aggressive death/thrash metal demo in October 1990 titled "Blasphemy", but soon after changed their name to Epitaph. With the name change also came a change in music style to death metal.
So "Disorientation..." may be the band´s second demo release (although the first was under the Dark Abbey name), but the change of sound and style in some ways makes "Disorientation..." a debut release for Epitaph. And what a debut that is. Thankfully they haven´t forgotten their aggressive death/thrash roots, and in addition to heavy mid-paced death metal brutality and growling vocals, there are actually quite a few brutal, sharp, and intense thrash metal riffs featured on the 4 track, 12:26 minutes long demo. They are just presented here in a death metal context.
"Disorientation..." was recorded at Sunlight Studio in March 1991 and produced by Christofer Johnsson (Therion) and Epitaph, and engineered by Tomas Skogsberg, so quite a few prolific names were involved in the recording of the demo, and it shows. While it´s certainly a both raw and aggressive release, it´s also a very well sounding release perfectly showcasing Epitaph´s caustic death metal style. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.